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©New Straits Times (Used by permission)
By Aniza Damis
 KUALA LUMPUR, Sun.: Stripping a woman detainee in a police lock-up and making her do ear squats in the nude may be "standard operating procedure" to the police, but is it legal? (Click here to view the video clip) "No," said human rights lawyers. "Where in the Lock-up Rules 1953 does it say that a body cavity search can be done?
"While the police claim that such searches are part of their standard operating procedures (SOPs), they must realise that their SOPs are not the law of the land. Any SOP has to be based on valid laws," said lawyer Amer Hamzah Arshad.
"Ear squats and body cavity searches are not written in the Lock-up Rules 1953, which govern the custody of the prisoner," said lawyer M. Puravalen.
He was commenting on the alleged case of abuse at a police lock-up, which was captured on video-phone. In that video, a woman of Chinese ethnicity was made to strip in front of a female police constable and to do ear squats.
Yesterday, Deputy Inspector-General of Police Datuk Seri Musa Hassan was reported as saying that all detainees were required to strip and be searched before being sent to the lock-up. The police could also ask detainees to do squats.
Amer Hamzah disagreed: "The mere fact that the police had conducted such searches previously as part of their SOPs does not make such searches legal, if in the first place there is no law to allow such searches."
He added that although the Police Act allowed the Inspector-General of Police to issue administrative orders which are known as "Standing Orders", they must not be contrary to the existing laws of the country.
Furthermore, he said Standing Orders had no force of law.
Amer Hamzah said the only law which allowed for a search to be conducted was in the Criminal Procedure Code, which in Section 20 says that "the police may search the body of such person and place in safe custody all articles other than the necessary apparel found on the person".
However, the law did not require detainees to be stripped naked before they could be placed in the lock-up.
Furthermore, Rule 7 of the Lock-up Rules 1953 states: "Every prisoner shall be searched on admission and all clothing and property, other than one set of clothing, shall be removed."
"The rule is silent as to whether a detainee can be subjected to a strip search or cavity search. In my view, the rule then must be read in conjunction with Section 20 of the CPC," he said.
"If the law is silent on the matter, this does not make strip searches legal. If there is any doubt in the law, the doubt is supposed to go in favour of the prisoner," Amer Hamzah said.
Both lawyers said that if strip or cavity searches were necessary, then clear and express provisions should be made, like in the Prison Regulations 2000, which spell out how searches are to be conducted in prisons.
In that regulation, the search has to be made "with due regard to decency and self-respect", and "no prisoner shall be stripped and searched in the presence of another prisoner".
However, these regulations are only applicable to prisons, not police lock-ups.
"If the police had clear laws and guidelines, then, like the Prison Regulations, they should be made public so that people would know where the line is and what the safeguards are," said Amer Hamzah.
"But if everything is so secretive, how are we to know our rights or whether they have been encroached on?"
Amer Hamzah said a person could refuse to be searched if he had not been informed of the reason for his arrest. However, the search must be warranted.
What the lawyers say on searches:
Criminal Procedure Code (CPC)
Section 19: Whenever it is necessary to cause a woman to be searched, the search shall be made by another woman with strict regard to decency.
Section 20: When a person has been arrested and has to be placed in custody, the police may search the body of the person and place in safe custody all articles other than the necessary apparel found on the person, and detain anything believed to be the instruments or the fruits or other evidence of the crime until the person is discharged or acquitted.
Lock-up Rules 1953
Rule 7: Every prisoner shall be searched on admission and all clothing and property, other than one set of clothing, shall be removed, entered in the Prisoner's Property Receipt Book, and placed in safe custody. Any monies or valuables sent for delivery to a prisoner shall be entered in the Prisoner's Property Receipt Book and placed in safe custody.
Rule 8: A woman prisoner shall be searched only by a woman.
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Well said, Amer. But I don't quite understand what the police meant by "standard operating procedure".
Is getting a woman to strip with the windows wide open a standard operating procedure? I heard that those who saw the unedited version said the woman was actually looking into the camera as she put on her brassiere. If that is true, was the policewoman in cahoots with her male colleagues by giving the latter a free show? Or was it the intention of the policewoman to shame the woman detainee in this manner? If the woman is aware that she was being taped, is that not sexual assault (outraging modesty) and harrassment? If not, is this not voyeurism, an offence punishable under the Penal Code? Does this happen to all other women detainees?
How degrading and despicable indeed!